At-Tahrim (The Prohibition)

3. Remember when the Prophet disclosed a secret of to one of his wives, then she divulged it and Allah made it known to him. He informed him of a part thereof and left the other part. When the Prophet let his wife know of it, she asked: “Who told you this secret?” He replied: “The Omniscient, the All-Aware Allah apprised me of it.”

4. If you two turn in repentance to Allah, it will be better for you, since your hearts have turned away from the truth, but if you conspire against him, you may not achieve anything. Then, verily Allah is his Protector and Gabriel and the righteous believers, and furthermore, the angels are his helpers.

The blessed Verses provide further details as to the narrative saying:

“Remember when the Prophet (S) disclosed a secret of his to some of his wives, but she failed to keep the secret and divulged it. God Almighty apprised His Messenger (S) of such disclosure and he apprised his wife of some of the intelligence and refrained from informing her of the rest.”

Now, what was the secret of which some of his wives were apprised? As mentioned above regarding the occasion of the Revelation, the secret consisted of two points, firstly eating honey before his wife Zaynab, the daughter of Jahsh and secondly prohibiting himself from eating honey in future. The wife who divulged the secret was Hafsa who upon being informed of the secret, she divulged the secret to ‘À’isha.

Upon being apprised of the disclosure of the secret through Divine Revelation, he informed Hafsa of some of it but refrained from informing her of it all to prevent her from being ashamed. The first part might have consisted of eating honey and the second part might have consisted of the prohibition as per which he refrained from eating honey in future.

At any rate, upon informing Hafsa of the disclosure of the secret, she inquired about the source of intelligence. He replied that God Almighty, the All-Wise, had informed him of the disclosure.

The blessed Verse n question reflect that some of the wives of the Noble Prophet (S) disturbed him by their words; further, they lacked the merit of keeping secrets which is one of the qualifications of a loyal wife.

Au contraire, the Noble Prophet’s (S) conduct was so magnanimous that he even did not apprised her of the whole intelligence, but merely alluded to some part of it.

In this vein, it is narrated from the Commander of the Faithful, Imam ‘Ali (as), as saying:

“Magnanimous people never to the extreme in obtaining their own rights, since God Almighty says that the Noble Prophet (S) apprised her of some of the intelligence and refrained from informing her of its entirety.1

Addressed to the two wives who had conspired in the above mentioned plot, the blessed Verse 4 is saying:

“If you repent and refrain from hurting the Noble Prophet (S), it will be better for you, since by doing such act, you hearts have turned away from truth and have become impure by committing sins.”

All Shi‘i and Sunni exegetes are unanimous in maintaining that Hafsa and ‘À’isha, the daughters of ‘Umar and Abu Bakr respectively, are hereby intended.

The Arabic verbal form

saghat (“inclined”), deriving from the root s-gh-w/s-gh-y (“incline, bend”), designates inclination and tending toward something. In Arabic, it is said: “saghat al-nujum” meaning: “the stars inclined toward the west.”

The verbal noun isgha’ denotes eaves dropping and listening to other people’s words furtively. The clause saghat qulubukum connotes that their hearts turned away from the truth and inclined toward committing sins.

The blessed Verse further adds that if you two conspire against him, i.e. the Noble Prophet (S), you may not achieve anything, since God Almighty is his Protector and Aid and also Gabriel, the righteous believers, and angels are also his helpers.

The blessed Verse reflects that the incident adversely affected the Noble Prophet’s (S) pure heart and his magnanimous soul such that God Almighty defended him and although Allah is Omnipotent, but it is proclaimed that Gabriel, the righteous believers, and angels were his helpers.

It is worthy of note that as recorded in Sahih Bukhari, it is narrated on the authority of Ibn ‘Abbas that the latter asked ‘Umar concerning the identity of the Noble Prophet’s (S) wives who had conspired against him.

‘Umar replied:

“By God Almighty we did not accord any attention toward women till God Almighty revealed some Verses regarding them and set out some rights for them and thereby they take liberties.”2

The same theme is to be found in Tafsir Durr al-Manthur in a detailed tradition narrated on the authority of Ibn ‘Abbas as per which ‘Umar said that he had been informed of the incident that the Noble Prophet (S) had turned away from all his wives and he was residing in a place named Mashraba Umm Ibrahim.

I went to him and inquired:

“O Allah’s Messenger! Have you divorced your wives?”

He replied:

“No.”

I further inquired:

“God is the Greatest! We, the Qurayshis, have been always dominating our wives, but when we came to Medina, we noticed that the Medinan women have the upper hand and our wives learned it from them. Once my wife quarreled with me and I regarded her act surprising and obnoxious.”

She asked:

“Why are you surprised? By Allah the Noble Prophet’s (S) wives treat him likewise and at times they fail to be on speaking terms with him.”

‘Umar said:

“I enjoined my daughter, Hafsa, to refrain from doing so and further added that if your neighbor, namely ‘À’isha, acts similarly, you should not do so as her conditions are different from yours.”3