66. Surah At-Tahrim (Prohibition)

Medina Period [107]

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا ...   

66:8.     O ye who believe!

C5542. The opposition of sex against sex, individual or concerted, having been condemned, we are now exhorted to turn to the Light, and to realise that the good and righteous can retain their integrity even though their mates, in spite of all their example and precept, remain in evil and sin.

...تُوبُوا إِلَى اللَّهِ تَوْبَةً نَّصُوحًا عَسَى رَبُّكُمْ أَن يُكَفِّرَ عَنكُمْ سَيِّئَاتِكُمْ ...

turn to Allah with sincere repentance: in the hope that your Lord will remove from you your ills

C5543. Whatever may have been the faults of the past, unite in good deeds, and abandon petty sectional jealousies, and Allah will remove your difficulties and distresses, and all the evils from which you suffer. Indeed He will grant you the Bliss of Heaven and save you from any humiliation which you may have brought on yourselves by your conduct and on the revered Prophet and Teacher whose name you professed to take.

... وَيُدْخِلَكُمْ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ ...

and admit you to Gardens beneath which Rivers flow --

... يَوْمَ لَا يُخْزِي اللَّهُ النَّبِيَّ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَعَهُ ...

the Day that Allah will not permit to be humiliated the Prophet and those who believe with him.

... نُورُهُمْ يَسْعَى بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَبِأَيْمَانِهِمْ ...

Their Light will run forward before them and by their right hands,

C5544. See 57:12, and n. 5288.

The darkness of evil will be dispelled, and the Light of Allah will be realized by them more and more. But even so they will not be content: for they will pray for the least taint of evil to be removed from them, and perfection to be granted to them.

In that exalted state they will be within reach of perfection, -not by their own merits, but by the infinite Mercy and Power of Allah.

... يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا أَتْمِمْ لَنَا نُورَنَا وَاغْفِرْ لَنَا ...

while they say,

"Our Lord! perfect our Light for us, and grant us Forgiveness;

... إِنَّكَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ ﴿٨﴾

for Thou has power over all things."

Asad’s Version:

66:8 O you who have attained to faith! Turn unto God in sincere repentance:" it may well be that your Sustainer will efface from you your bad deeds, and will admit you into gardens through which running waters flow, on a Day on which God will not shame the Prophet and those who share his faith: 17 their light will spread rapidly before them, and on their right; 18 [and] they will pray: "O our Sustainer! Cause this our light to shine for us forever, 18 and forgive us our sins: for, verily, Thou hast the power to will anything!"