Introduction

This Medinian sûrah deals with an incident that happened within the Prophet’s household. The Prophet (ﷺ) used to visit all of his wives in the evening. It so happened that he stayed longer than usual at the home of Zainab bint Jaḥsh, where he was offered honey—something he liked very much. Out of jealousy, two other wives (Ḥafṣah and ’Ȃishah) agreed between themselves to tell the Prophet (ﷺ), when he visited each of them, that his mouth gave off a bad smell, knowing that he (ﷺ) did not like bad smells. Eventually, the Prophet made an oath that he would never eat honey again, and told Ḥafṣah not to tell anyone about this. But she told ’Ȃishah that their plan worked. Both wives are subtly advised to learn from the example of the two believing women mentioned at the end of the sûrah—Mary and Ȃsiyah, the wife of Pharaoh—and take a lesson from the fate of the wives of Noah and Lot, who were both destroyed despite being wives of prophets. The believers are urged in this sûrah to mend their ways and genuinely repent to Allah in order to win His eternal reward, whereas the disbelievers are warned of a horrible fate. The fate of the disbelievers is elaborated upon in the next sûrah. In the Name of Allah—the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful