ENTITLED, PROHIBITION; REVEALED AT MEDINA.
IN THE NAME OF THE MOST MERCIFUL GOD.
O PROPHET, why holdest thou that to be prohibited which GOD hath allowed
thee, seeking to please thy wives;h since GOD is inclined to forgive, and
merciful?
f Which ought at least to be sufficient to maintain and clothe them
during the time of suckling. See chapter 2, p. 25.
g Penetrating and pervading them all with absolute efficacy.
GOD hath allowed you the dissolution of your oaths:i and GOD is your
master; and he is knowing and wise.
When the prophet intrusted as a secret unto one of his wives a certain
accident; and when she disclosed the same, and GOD made it known unto him; he
acquainted her with part of what she had done, and forbore to upbraid her with
the other part thereof. And when he had acquainted her therewith, she said,
Who hath discovered this unto thee? He answered, The knowing, the sagacious
God hath discovered it unto me.k
h There are some who suppose this passage to have been occasioned by
Mohammed's protesting never to eat honey any more, because, having once eaten
some in the apartment of Hafsa, or of Zeinab, three other of his wives,
namely, Ayesha, Sawda, and Safia, all told him they smelt he had been eating
of the juice which distils from certain shrubs in those parts, and resembles
honey in taste and consistence, but is of a very strong flavour, and which the
prophet had a great aversion to.1 But the more received opinion is, that the
chapter was revealed on the following occasion. Mohammed having lain with a
slave of his named Mary, of Coptic extract (who had been sent him as a present
by al Mokawkas, governor of Eygpt), on the day which was due to Ayesha, or to
Hafsa, and, as some say, on Hafsa's own bed, while she was absent; and this
coming to Hafsa's knowledge, she took it extremely ill, and reproached her
husband so sharply that, to pacify her, he promised, with an oath, never to
touch the maid again:1 and to free him from the obligation of this promise was
the design of the chapter.
I cannot here avoid observing, as a learned writer2 has done before me,
that Dr. Prideaux has strangely misrepresented this passage. For having given
the story of the prophet's amour with his maid mary, a little embellished, he
proceeds to tell us that in this chapter Mohammed brings in GOD allowing him,
and all his Moslems, to lie with their maids when they will, notwithstanding
their wives (whereas the words relate to the prophet only, who wanted not any
new permission for that purpose, because it was a privilege already granted
him,3 though to none else); and then, to show what ground he had for his
assertion, adds that the first words of the chapter are, O prophet, why dost
thou forbid what GOD hath allowed thee, that thou mayest please thy wives?
GOD hath granted unto you to lie with your maid-servants.4 Which last words
are not to be found here, or elsewhere in the Korân, and contain an allowance
of what is expressly forbidden therein;5 though the doctor has thence taken
occasion to make some reflections which might as well have been spared. I
shall say nothing to aggravate the matter, but leave the reader to imagine
what this reverend divine would have said of a Mohammedan if he had caught him
tripping in the like manner.
Having digressed so far, I will venture to add a word or two in order to
account for one circumstance which Dr. Prideaux relates concerning Mohammed's
concubine Mary; viz., that after her master's death, no account was had of her
or the son which she had borne him, but both were sent away into Egypt, and no
mention made of either ever after among them; and then he supposes (for he
seldom is at a loss for a supposition) that Ayesha, out of the hatred which
she bore her, procured of her father, who succeeded the impostor in the
government, to have her thus disposed of.6 But it being certain, by the
general consent of all the eastern writers, that Mary continued in Arabia till
her death, which happened at Medina about five years after that of her master,
and was buried in the usual burying-place there, called al Bakí, and that her
son died before his father, it has been asked, whence the doctor had this?7 I
answer, that I guess he had it partly from Abulfaragius, according to the
printed edition of whose work, the Mary we are speaking of is said to have
been sent with her sister Shirin (not with her son) to Alexandria by al
Mokawkas;8 though I make no doubt but we ought in that passage to read min,
from, instead if ila, to (notwithstanding the manuscript copies of this author
used by Dr. Pocock, the editor, and also a very fair one in my own possession,
agree in the latter reading); and that the sentence ought to run thus, quam
(viz., Mariam) unà cum sorore Shirina ab Alexandria miserat al Mokawkas.
i By having appointed an expiation for that purpose;9 or, as the words
may be translated, God hath allowed you to use an exception in your oaths if
it please GOD; in which case a man is excused from guilt if he perform not his
oath.10 The passage, though directed to all the Moslems in general, seems to
be particularly designed for quieting the prophet's conscience in regard to
the oath above mentioned: but Al Beidâwi approves not this opinion, because
such an oath was to be looked upon as an inconsiderate one, and required no
expiation.
k When Mohammed found that Hafsa knew of his having injured her, or
Ayesha, by lying with his concubine Mary on the day due to one of them, he
desired her to keep the affair secret, promising, at the same time, that he
would not meddle with Mary any more; and foretold her, as a piece of news
which might soothe her vanity, that Abu Becr and Omar should succeed him in
the government of his people. Hafsa, however, could not conceal this from
Ayesha, with whom she lived in strict friendship, but acquainted her with the
whole matter: whereupon the prophet, perceiving, probably by Ayesha's
behaviour, that his secret had been discovered, upbraided Hafsa with her
betraying him, telling her that GOD had revealed it to him; and not only
divorced her, but separated him from all his other wives for a whole month,
which time he spent in the apartment of Mary. In a short time,
notwithstanding, he took Hafsa again, by the direction, as he gave out, of the
angel Gabriel, who commended her for her frequent fasting and other exercises
of devotion, assuring him likewise that she should be one of his wives in
paradise.11
1 Al Zamakh., al Beidâwi. 1 Idem, Jallal., Yahya.
2 Gagnier, not. ad Abulf. Vit. Moh. p. 150.
3 See cap. 33, p. 318, 319. 4 Prid. Life of Mah. p. 113. 5 See
cap. 17, p. 209; cap. 4, p. 56; and cap. 24, p. 267, &c.
6 Prid. Life of Mah. p. 114. 7 Gagnier, ubi supra. 8
Abulfarag. Hist. Dynast. p. 165. 9 See cap. 5, p. 84.
10 Al Beidâwi. 11 Idem. al Zamakh, &c.
If ye both be turned unto GOD (for your hearts have swerved) it is well:
but if ye join against him, verily GOD is his patron; and Gabriel, and the
good man among the faithful, and the angels also are his assistants.l
If he divorce you, his LORD can easily give him in exchange other wives
better than you, women resigned unto God, true believers, devout, penitent,
obedient, given to fasting, both such as have been known by other men, and
virgins.
O true believers, save your souls, and those of your families, from the
fire whose fuel is men and stones, over which are set angels fierce and
terrible;m who disobey not GOD in what he hath commanded them, but perform
what they are commanded.
O unbelievers, excuse not yourselves this day; ye shall surely be
rewarded for what ye have done.n
O true believers, turn unto GOD with a sincere repentance: peradventure
your LORD will do away from you your evil deeds, and will admit you into
gardens, through which rivers flow; on the day whereon GOD will not put to
shame the prophet, or those who believe with him: their light shall run before
them, and on their right hands,o and they shall say, LORD, make our light
perfect, and forgive us: for thou art almighty.
O prophet, attack the infidels with arms, and the hypocrites with
arguments; and treat them with severity: their abode shall be hell, and an ill
journey shall it be thither.
10 GOD propoundeth as a similitude unto the unbelievers, the wife of Noah,
and the wife of Lot: they were under two of our righteous servants, and they
deceived them both;p wherefore their husbands were of no advantage unto them
at all, in the sight of GOD:q and it shall be said unto them, at the last day,
Enter ye into hell fire, with those who enter therein.
GOD also propoundeth as a similitude unto those who believe, the wife of
Pharaoh;r when she said, LORD, build me a house with thee in paradise; and
deliver me from Pharaoh and his doings, and deliver me from the unjust people:
and Mary the daughter of Imran; who preserved her chastity, and into
whose womb we breathed of our spirit,s and who believed in the words of her
LORD, and his scriptures, and was a devout and obedient person.t
l This sentence is directed to Hafsa and Ayesha; the pronouns and verbs
of the second person being in the dual number.
m See chapter 74, and the Prelim. Disc. Sect. IV. p. 72.
n These words will be spoken to the infidels at the last day.
o See chapter 57, p. 400.
p Who were both unbelieving women, but deceived their respective
husbands by their hypocrisy. Noah's wife, named Wâïla, endeavoured to
persuade the people her husband was distracted; and Lot's wife, whose name was
Wâhela (though some writers give this name to the other, and that of Wâïla to
the latter), was in confederacy with the men of Sodom, and used to give them
notice when any strangers came to lodge with him, by a sign of smoke by day,
and of fire by night.1
q For they both met with a disastrous end in this world,2 and will be
doomed to eternal misery in the next. In like manner, as Mohammed would
insinuate, the infidels of his time had no reason to expect any mitigation of
their punishment, on account of their relation to himself and the rest of the
true believers.
r viz., Asia, the daughter of Mozâhem. The commentators relate, that
because she believed in Moses, her husband cruelly tormented her, fastening
her hands and feet to four stakes, and laying a large mill-stone on her
breast, her face, at the same time, being exposed to the scorching beams of
the son. These pains, however, were alleviated by the angels shading her with
their wings, and the view of the mansion prepared for her in paradise, which
was exhibited to her on her pronouncing the prayer in the text. At length GOD
received her soul; or, as some say, she was taken up alive into paradise,
where she eats and drinks.3
s See chapter 19, p. 228, &c.
t On occasion of the honourable mention here made of these two
extraordinary women, the commentators introduce a saying of their prophet,
That among men there had been many perfect, but no more than four of the other
sex had attained perfection; to wit, Asia, the wife of Pharaoh; Mary, the
daughter of Imrân; Khadîjah, the daughter of Khowailed (the prophet's first
wife); and Fâtema, the daughter of Mohammed.
1 Jallal., al Zamakh. 2 See cap. 11, p. 162, 166, and 167.
3 Jallal., al Zamakh.