Welcome to our weekly program "Path Towards Enlightenment" in which we present you a fluent and easy-to-understand explanation of the ayahs of the holy Quran.

We start from where we left you last Friday and here is ayah 32 of Surah Ahzab:

 “O wives of the Prophet! You are not like any other women: if you are wary [of Allah], then do not be complaisant in your speech, lest he in whose heart is a sickness yearn; and do speak honourable words.”

As you know, Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny), never took any other woman as spouse during the 25 long years of marital bliss he had spent with his loyal wife, the Mother of all True Believers, Omm al-Momineen Hazrat Khadija (peace upon her). But following her departure from the mortal world and his own migration from Mecca to Medina, the middle-aged widower Prophet, in order to break the taboos of the customs of the days of ignorance, married several needy women, who were widows or divorcees. These wives were not on the same level of faith as the Late Khadija (peace upon her). These wives of the Prophet were liable to err, and for this reason, as we explained last week, God Almighty had warned them against disobedience and indecency, which would surely entail divine punishment for them. At the same time, God has promised the obedient and faithful among them twofold rewards. God had also cautioned these wives of the Prophet to mind their behaviour and not to behave like ordinary women.

Here, in the ayah that we recited to you, God means to tell them that you should behave in a decent way in public, mindful of your modesty and position as the wives of the Prophet, and by being cognizant of Almighty Allah, should be careful of your manner of speech, especially when talking to men not related to you, so that persons in whose hearts is sickness, do not entertain any wrongful thoughts about you. Thus you should always speak decent words. In other words, since these wives of the Prophet are connected to the centre of Divine Revelation, they ought to be a model for Muslim women, in the way of piety. They commanded to recognize their situation and not neglect the heavy responsibility entrusted to them. If they are pious they will have a very excellent rank with Allah.

From this ayah we learn that:

1. The circumstance of the families of Prophets, Imams, saints, and religious leaders, is different from that of others, and warrants them to be more careful of their behaviour than ordinary women.
2. In addition to the manner of clothing, the way of talking of women is of vital importanc. Thus, God stresses observance of piety in all affairs including the way of talking and its contents.
3. In every society there are perverted persons, and so pious women ought to be on guard against the mischief of such persons during social interactions, in order not to arouse any untoward feeling.

Now we listen to and read ayahs 33 of Surah Ahzab:

“Stay in your houses and do not display your finery with the display of the former [days of] ignorance. Maintain the prayer and pay the zakāt and obey Allah and His Prophet.

Indeed Allah desires to repel all impurity from you, O People of the Household, and purify you with a thorough purification.”

This particular ayah is divided into two parts. The first part pertains to the Prophet’s wives in continuation of the previous ayahs, while the second part is exclusively related to the perfect and flawless purity of the Prophet’s immediate family, the Ahl al-Bayt, comprised of his one and only daughter, the Immaculate Fatema Zahra, her husband the Prophet’s dear cousin Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb, and the couple’s two Infallible Sons, Imam Hasan and Imam Husain (peace upon them).

Thus in the first part, in his address to the Prophet’s wives, God means to say: Unlike the pre-Islamic era when women dressed immodestly and appeared in public using a variety of jewelry, you the wives of the Prophet ought not to leave your house unless it is needed. If your presence is required in the society, you should appear in public with appropriate dressing without display of your adornments and the ornaments you wear. The ayah after instructing the Prophet’s wives to regularly perform their daily ritual prayers and pay zakat to the deserving, again emphasizes their obedience to the Prophet and Almighty Allah. An important point to note is that, although the wives of the Prophet are addressed in this ayah, the message is general and meant for all believing Muslim women.

As for the second part of ayah 33, the persons being addressed here are not the wives of the Prophet, but as we said earlier, the Ahl al-Bayt or immediate blood relatives of the Messenger of God, that is, Hazrat Fatema Zahra, Imam Ali, Imam Hasan and Imam Husain (peace upon them).

As the words of the ayah are clear, God has thoroughly purified these personalities and decreed them Infallible from any sin or even shortcoming. In other words, like the Prophet himself, they are in the perfectly purified state, and never do they incline toward any faulty behaviour, let alone sins, while they have the power to do so. It means they are in complete control of their self and all organs that God has bestowed them; being totally resigned to the Will of God. They behave in such a way that they serve as excellent exemplars in all fields for those aspiring to be true believers.

Although some misinformed interpreters of the holy Qur’an, have tried to include the Prophet’s wives in the circle of the Ahl al-Bayt, it is crystal clear that these wives, who were born in non-Muslim households that later embraced Islam, are not part of this exclusively purified groups, whose essence, like that of the Prophet, was created by God from celestial light, as is confirmed by several hadith.

From these ayahs we learn that:

1. A woman’s public display of her God-given beauty, her adornments and the ornaments she wears, is not allowed by Islam in order to prevent the society from depravity. A wife’s beauty is reserved for her husband only.
2. The greatest jewel of a woman is her chastity, in addition to faith and modest behaviour.
3. The pristine purity of the Ahl al-Bayt is vouchsafed by God Almighty Himself. They are spotlessly clean of any blemish, and are Infallible

FK/AS/ME