Surah Al-Ahzab 33:59-68 - Quran Translation Commentary

59. O Prophet! Tell your wives, and your daughters and the women of the believers that they should cast upon them their cloaks. That is more proper, so that they may be recognised and not molested.¹³⁰ And Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.¹³¹

60. If the hypocrites and those who have a disease in their hearts,¹³² and the rumour mongers of Madina do not desist, We will rouse you against them, and they will be your neighbours in it only for a while. ¹³³

61. Accursed,¹³⁴ they will be seized wherever found, and slain mercilessly.¹³⁵

62. That has been the tradition of Allah in the case of those who passed away before; and you will find no change in the tradition of Allah.¹³⁶

63. People ask you about the Hour of Doom. Say: “The knowledge of it is with Allah alone. Who knows, it may well be near at hand?” ¹³⁷

64. Verily Allah has cursed the disbelievers and has prepared for them a blazing Fire, ¹³⁸

65. Wherein they will abide for ever. They will find no protecting friend nor helper.

66. On the day when their faces will be turned over in the fire, they will say: “Oh, would that we had obeyed Allah and had obeyed His messenger !”¹³⁹

67. And they will say: “Our Lord! Verily we obeyed leaders and elders, and they misled us from the right path. ¹⁴⁰

68. Our Lord! Let their punishment be doubled, and lay on them a mighty curse.”¹⁴¹

Commentary

130. In this ayah the general Muslim women are directed to draw close to their bodies cloak (Jilbab chadar) whenever they may go out from their houses, as is clear from the sentence that follows. And its advantage has also been stated that it will enable them to be recognised, that is it will show that they are respectable and chaste women, and therefore, mischief-making elements will not expect any response from them and will not tease them. This chadar of modesty will keep them comparatively safe.

Jilbab means broad cloth (Lisan-ul- Arab Vol.1 page 272). This word is used for a sheet of cloth, chadar, which is bigger than dupatta, which women use for covering their bodies and dress. The word ‘min’ is not used here as a preposition, as it is not used in the hadith narrated by Um Atiyyah:

“Um Atiyyah says: ‘When the Prophet persuaded women to join the prayer for Eid, I said : O messenger of Allah: if some one of us has no cloak (chadar), what should we do? He said: Her sister should cover her with her cloak.”-(Fathul Qadeer, Vol.4, page 304, as quoted from Bukhari).

In this hadith also the words ‘Min Jilbabiha’ do not mean part of the cloak of her but it means her full chadar. And ‘Yudneena Alaihinna’ means to draw it on oneself. Similarly at another place in the Quran it is stated:

“Wa Daniyatan Alaihim Zilaluha” which means its shadows will be on them. (Al-Insan 14).

It means that when Muslim women go out of the houses, they should draw close over their bodies such cloak or sheet of cloth which should be bigger than the odhani (head-cloth), which should cover their bodies and dress. This cloth should either be in the form of a sheet or in the form of ‘burqa’, the purpose is to conceal the open parts of the body, the ornamentation and the cut and fit of the clothe, so that the woman may not pass before strange men with her charm and attraction. She should go in a way which would meet the demands of modesty and which would show her to be a respectable woman. This is an outline of command concerning purdah, and it is not clarified in it whether a woman can keep her face and hands open, because as Quran proposes to stop the mischief, it also tries to remove the difficulties in practicing it. Accordingly in the Surah Noor which was revealed after this Surah, where the women have been commanded to conceal their ornamentation, there the exception has also been allowed: ‘except what becomes manifest.’ (See Surah Noor, ayah 21, Note No.42). Therefore, in the command concerning jilbab’ this concession will be kept in view, especially when this command is in the nature of an outline. If the purpose were to essentially conceal the face and the hands, then the clarification would have been given in the ayah.

In the absence of this clarification, insistence on concealing the face and the hands and covering the body with the chadar in such a way that no part of the dress be visible to the outsider is nothing else but trying to make an outline command to be a very as detailed and severe. If such a severity were adopted in the past, then it would have been tolerated conditions then prevailing, but in the present condition when women have to meet so many of their needs and fulfill their responsibilities by going out of the house, making the command of the purdah so severe can create a lot of difficulties and problems for them. And it may also result in the women giving up purdah altogether, considering it to be totally unpracticable. Therefore, it is necessary to keep the correct balance.

131. Hints at the point that if in following the command concerning jilbab sincerely, if any defects are found unwittingly, then Allah will forgive and will show mercy.

132. Means the disease of lust, means lustful men.

133.It give an idea that at that time the hypocrites and mischief makers had become very bold to disturb the ambience of Madina, to spread panic among people by propagating rumours of imminent fighting, and teasing respectable Muslim ladies and leveling false allegations against them. Therefore, on the one hand the Muslim women were given the command to observe purdah while going out in order to keep safe from their mischief, and on the other hand those hypocrites and mischief-makers were warned that if they did not desist, then Allah would give command to His messenger to punish them and to clear the Muslim society of these mischief makers.

It may be noted that the need of the moment which required that special kind of purdah (jilbab) does not mean that this command is specific or reserved for such circumstances only. Many commands in the Quran were given in specific or special circumstances, but they are now of permanent nature, and the one need specific for that command may not be the only need, there may be other needs also, and it was thought necessary to state only one need.

134. That is: They will be thrown away from the mercy of Allah, and those whom Allah deprives of His mercy, they are destined to be disgraced.

135. Accordingly in Surah Taubah (09 Hijri) command was given to deal very strictly with hypocrites:

“O Prophet ! Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites, and deal strictly with them” -(At-Taubah - 73).

And the Prophet also commanded their mosque which they had built to create discord among the Muslims to be burnt down. All these details have been given in the commentary of Surah Taubah.

136. That is: Before these, in the communities in which the Divine Messengers were sent when the disbelievers were eliminated, the hypocrites and the mischief makers were also removed to clear the society, and the new society composed of the righteous faithful was allowed to flourish, and the responsibilities of the khilafat (rule) were entrusted to that. In this way, after crushing the mischief, Allah forms the human society anew on righteous basis. And there is no reason that this tradition of Allah may not be enforced in relation to this Prophet. And it is a fact that the society and the ambience of Madina were made clear of all mischief before the death of Prophet, Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam.

137. The question: when will the Doomsday occur? was not only being asked in makkah, but it was also being repeated in Madina. Though Quran had answered this question several times, yet the people used to annoy the Prophet often with this question. Their purpose was to create doubts about Doomsday in the minds of the general people. If in Makkah the infidels were trying to create doubts, then in Madina these hypocrites were doing the same thing.

If Allah’s wise policy demanded that its occurrence may not be revealed to anyone, it did not mean that it will not occur at all. Nobody knows when the death of a person will occur, then does it mean a person’s death does not take place? As the coming of death is certain, so also is the coming of Doomsday certain, although its hour of occurrence is not known to us. However Quran also clarifies that the Doomsday will occur soon, and it is a fact as Muhammad, Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam, is the last prophet. Through him the religion of Allah has been perfected, and Allah’s message has been conveyed to the people of the world. Therefore, this world is now passing through its last stage. In a hadith it is stated that the Prophet has stated:

“I and the Day of Resurrection have been sent together like this, and he showed his first and middle finger joined together.” - (Mishkat kitabus Salat as quote by Muslim).

For further explanation please see Surah A’raf Note No. 286 to 289).

138. This is a warning for those who want the Doomsday to be brought soon. The Doomsday will come at its appointed hour. Those who deny its coming for them there is deprivation and when it will occur, they will be thrown in it, because after denying the occurrence of Doomsday, man cannot develop in himself attributes which would enable him to get rewards in the Hereafter. Instead he commits such acts which make him liable to receive punishment in the Hereafter.

139. The deniers of the Day of Resurrection have turned their faces from obeying the commands of Allah, and they also do not care for obeying the Messenger of Allah. But on the Day of Resurrection when they will be confronted with the Hell, they will realise their error and they will feel sorry and will say Oh, Would that we had obeyed Allah and His messenger !

140.’Sadatna’ means their leaders and ‘Kubarana’ means their elders, religious guides, etc. The deniers will realise after being thrown into the Hell that in the world they had been obeying the rebel and wayward leaders, instead of obeying Allah and His messenger, and they followed those religious guides who misled them.

141.Today these deniers are showering praises over their leaders, and are expressing their devotion to their religious guides, but after going to Hell they will be sending curses on them and will desire that the curses and the punishment of their leaders may be enhanced.