Surah An-Nur 24:21-26 - Quran Translation Commentary

21. O you who believe! Do not follow the footsteps of Satan. To whoever follows the footsteps of Satan, verily he bids indecency and evil. Had it not been for the grace of Allah and His mercy to you, none of you would have ever grown pure.²⁵ But Allah purifies whom He will. And Allah is All-Hearing, All- Knowing.²⁶

22.Let not the honourable and rich among you swear not to give to the near of kin, the poor, and those who have migrated for the cause of Allah. Let them forgive and show indulgence. Do you not wish Allah to forgive you? And Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.²⁷

23. Verily those who accuse chaste, believing women who are unaware,²⁸ are cursed in the world and the Hereafter. And for them will be great punishment.

24. On the day when their tongues and their hands and their feet will testify against them as to what they used to do.

25.On that day Allah will pay them their just due, and they will know that Allah, He is the Manifest Truth.²⁹

26.Unclean women are for unclean men, and unclean men for unclean women. Clean women are for clean men, and clean men for clean women; ³⁰ such are innocent of what the people say.³¹ For them is pardon and a bountiful provision.

Commentary

25. That is: People of piety should not be proud of their righteousness under the influence of Satan, but they should know and think that whatever purity of self they have is on account of the grace of Allah and His mercy, and because of His guidance. Moral purity is Allah’s favour and a thing which makes one worthy of His mercy.

26. Purity of self and the task of adorning moral and character depend on the guidance from Allah only. Whomsoever He wills, He makes into pure gold. But this distribution of favours cannot be wrong, for He is fully aware of the conditions of His slaves. He knows who wants purity and how much sincere he is in this seeking. On this occasion that prayer should also be kept in view which the Prophet, Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam, had taught

“O Allah! Grant to my self ‘taqwa’ (your fear), and purify it. You are the best purifier. You are its friend, and helper.” -(Mishkat- Kitabud Da’wat-with ref. to Muslim).

27. A few Muslims had fallen prey to the propaganda of the hypocrites on account of their lack of understanding, which they had started against some modest Muslim ladies. ‘They had especially picked on those Muslim ladies who had come to Madina after migrating from Makkah, and attempts were made to defame them. When Allah revealed stern warnings in this connection, some Muslims who used to help some of these foolish but poor Muslims swore that they would stop helping them from then onwards. In this ayah they are directed that they should not stop helping them and that they should forgive them. If they seek forgiveness from Allah for themselves, then they should also forgive the faults of other men. This direction is not specific to any particular person but is applicable to general kinsmen, the poor and the Muhajireen, that is, those who had committed the error should not be deprived of their help fiscally. This ayah has also elicited this point of Shariah that if a man swears not to do an act of virtue, he should break his oath and continue to do good work.

28. By unaware (ghafilat) are meant those women who could not even dream or imagine of committing any obscene act, or that they could be made victims of slander. They have neither interest in immodest talks and things, nor does their behaviour manifest any immodesty.

29.That is: In the world many things remain hidden, but in the Hereafter everything comes out in the open. The falsehoods that were spoken in the world will be exposed in the Hereafter, and the false charges that were levelled against the innocent people will also be disclosed to be false. On that day people will realise that Allah is the Truth, therefore, He deals justly and to meet the demands of justice he lifts those veils behind which realities are hidden.

30. Here ‘khabeeth’ (unclean) means immodest, of easy virtue. It means that for immodest women immodest men are suitable and for immodest men immodest women are suitable. Similarly for ‘Tayyib’ (clean pure) women clean or modest men are suitable and vice versa.

Such a suitability demands that pure and modest women should be given in wedlock to modest and pure men, and that modest or clean men should marry only clean or modest women.

31. That is: The mischief of slander that has been committed against modest and pure men and women is obviously false. The slander of immodesty against modest men and women does not tarnish their fair image; they are fully innocent of these false accusations.

The statement about the innocence of these people is of a general nature, and does not pertain to any single individual specifically. It is stated as a principle and does not apply to any particular incident.