The Koran


CHAPTER LXVI.
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; since God is inclined to forgive and merciful? God hath allowed you the dissolution of your oaths: and God is your master; and he is knowing and wise. When the prophet entrusted 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. 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. 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; 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. 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, 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. 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; wherefore their husbands were of no advantage unto them at all, in the sight of God: and it shall be said unto them at the last day, Enter ye into hell fire, with those who enter therein. God also propounded as a similitude unto those who believe, the wife of Pharaoh; 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, and who believed in the words of her Lord and his scriptures, and was a devout and obedient person.