Surah At-Tahrim

Surah At-Tahrim is the 66th surah of the Quran. It begins with a gentle correction of the Prophet (ﷺ) in a household matter and then turns to the Muslim family, the duty of saving oneself and one's family from the Fire, repentance and striving, and it closes with four women who are examples for all believers.

Why is it called At-Tahrim?

The first ayah says: O Prophet, why do you make unlawful («تُحَرِّمُ») what Allah has made lawful for you? The word «تحریم» means to make something unlawful. Since the surah begins with this and its first ayat are about it, it is named At-Tahrim.

Period and occasion of revelation

The surah is Madani. It was revealed in the later years of the Madani period, when the Prophet (ﷺ) had several wives; the exact year is not known. The common occasion is the honey incident reported in Sahih Bukhari (details in the next section). Some narrations name another event, the matter of Hazrat Mariyah (RA), but the honey incident is the better established and is the one taught in the textbooks.

Central theme

The central theme is the correct conduct of the believing household: the Prophet's (ﷺ) household is to be a model, a believer must not make lawful things unlawful, secrets must be kept, the family must be saved from the Fire by teaching and example, and in the end everyone is judged by his or her own faith and deeds, not by relations with the righteous.

Main topics

• Making the lawful unlawful; the dissolution of oaths (66:1 to 2)
• The secret and the address to the two wives (66:3 to 5)
• Save yourselves and your families from the Fire (66:6 to 7)
• Sincere repentance (66:8)
• Striving against the disbelievers and the hypocrites (66:9)
• Four women as examples (66:10 to 12)

There is no authentic hadith giving a special reward for reciting this surah as a whole. Two well-founded hadith concern the women named at its end:

• The Prophet (ﷺ) said that many men reached perfection but among women only Hazrat Asiyah, Pharaoh's wife, and Hazrat Maryam bint Imran (AS) reached it (Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim).
• The Prophet (ﷺ) said that every one of you is a shepherd and is responsible for his flock (Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim). It explains the duty of 66:6 to guide one's family.

The Prophet (ﷺ) liked sweet things and honey. According to Sahih Bukhari (from Hazrat Aishah (RA)), he used to drink honey at the house of Hazrat Zainab bint Jahsh (RA) and stay a little longer with her. Hazrat Aishah and Hazrat Hafsah (RA) agreed that whenever he came to one of them, she would say: I smell «مَغَافِير» (a gum with an unpleasant smell) from you. The Prophet (ﷺ) said that he had only drunk honey at Zainab's house, and that he would not do it again; he swore it and asked them not to tell anyone.

Then ayat 66:1 and 66:2 were revealed. The Prophet (ﷺ) had not made honey unlawful by law, but he had given up what is lawful to please his wives. Allah corrected him gently: do not make unlawful what Allah has made lawful, and the oath can be dissolved by expiation (see 5:89).

• Lesson 1: no one, not even the Prophet (ﷺ), has the right to make lawful things unlawful, because legislation belongs to Allah alone.
• Lesson 2: Allah has made provision for an oath that was wrongly taken: it is dissolved by expiation (66:2; 5:89).
• Lesson 3: the Prophet's (ﷺ) household is held to a higher standard, so even a small matter was corrected.

The secret (66:3)

The Prophet (ﷺ) confided a statement to one of his wives (Hazrat Hafsah (RA)), who disclosed it to another (Hazrat Aishah (RA)). Allah informed the Prophet (ﷺ) of this. He told her part of what she had done and left the rest out of kindness. She asked: who told you? He said: the Knowing, the Acquainted told me.

• If the two wives repent to Allah, it is best, because their hearts had inclined (66:4). According to Hazrat Umar (RA), as narrated in Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, the two wives were Hazrat Aishah and Hazrat Hafsah (RA).
• If they support one another against him, Allah is his protector, and Jibril, the righteous believers and the angels are his helpers (66:4).
• If he divorced them, his Lord could give him better wives: Muslim, believing, obedient, repentant, worshipping, fasting or travelling for Allah's cause, previously married and virgins (66:5).

Around this time the Prophet (ﷺ) kept away from his wives for a month, and the Companions were deeply worried; finally he returned to his wives (Hazrat Umar's long narration in Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim). The ayat were a warning, not a divorce.

• The believers are commanded: protect yourselves and your families from a Fire whose fuel is people and stones (66:6).
• Over it are angels, harsh and severe, who never disobey Allah and do what they are commanded (66:6).
• The disbelievers will be told that day: make no excuses; you are only repaid for what you did (66:7).

How can we save ourselves and our families? By learning and teaching faith and its duties, by ordering good and forbidding evil in the home, and by setting an example. Hazrat Ali (RA) explained it as teaching them good and training them (Tafsir Ibn Kathir). The Prophet (ﷺ) said: tell your children to pray when they are seven years old (Abu Dawud).

• The believers are called to repent to Allah with sincere repentance («تَوْبَةً نَّصُوحًا») (66:8).
• The promise: perhaps your Lord will remove your misdeeds and admit you to gardens beneath which rivers flow (66:8).
• On that day Allah will not disgrace the Prophet (ﷺ) and the believers with him; their light will run before them and on their right, and they will pray: our Lord, perfect our light for us and forgive us (66:8).

Conditions of sincere repentance

The scholars (for example Imam Nawawi and the commentators) give these conditions: (1) stop the sin at once; (2) feel regret for it; (3) resolve never to return to it; (4) if the sin involved the right of another person, give it back or ask pardon.

• The Prophet (ﷺ) is commanded: strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites and be firm with them (66:9).
• According to the common explanation (Ibn Abbas (RA), Ibn Kathir), jihad against the disbelievers is with the sword when they fight, and against the hypocrites with argument, proof and the enforcement of the limits of Allah, since they outwardly claim to be Muslims.
• Their end is Hell, and it is an evil destination (66:9).

The wives of Hazrat Nuh and Hazrat Lut (AS) were under two righteous servants of Allah, but they betrayed them, that is, they did not believe in their message and helped the disbelievers (Ibn Abbas (RA): the betrayal was in faith and not in chastity). Their closeness to the prophets did not save them, and they were told: enter the Fire with those who enter.

Hazrat Asiyah (AS), the wife of Pharaoh, believed while living in the house of the worst tyrant. She prayed: my Lord, build for me a house near You in Paradise, save me from Pharaoh and his deeds and save me from the wrongdoing people (66:11). Her husband's disbelief did not harm her, because each person is accountable for his own faith.

Hazrat Maryam bint Imran (AS) guarded her chastity, believed in the words of her Lord and His books, and was among the devoutly obedient (66:12). Allah breathed into her through His angel, and she became the mother of Hazrat Isa (AS).

1. Faith and personal accountability: each woman is judged by her own faith and deeds, as in the wives of Nuh and Lut (AS) and Asiyah (AS) (66:10 to 11).
2. Firmness in faith under pressure: follow Asiyah (AS), who stayed firm in Pharaoh's house and asked Allah for Paradise (66:11).
3. Chastity and devotion: follow Maryam (AS), who guarded her chastity, believed in Allah's words and was devout (66:12).
4. Keeping secrets and trusts: the secret disclosed in the Prophet's (ﷺ) household caused a rebuke (66:3).
5. Avoiding the pressure of the household: do not push the husband to give up what is lawful or to do what harms his duty; he must not make the lawful unlawful (66:1).
6. Repentance: when a mistake happens, return to Allah and repent (66:4, 66:8).
7. The qualities of the ideal wife: submitting, believing, devout, repentant, worshipping, fasting or travelling in Allah's way (66:5).
8. Training the family: a woman, as a mother, helps save herself and her family from the Fire by teaching and example (66:6).

Ruku 1 corrects the Prophet (ﷺ) for making honey unlawful on himself, teaches the dissolution of oaths, tells of the secret and addresses the two wives, then orders the believers to protect themselves and their families from the Fire.

• The lawful may not be made unlawful (66:1).
• Keep secrets; repent if you err (66:3 to 5).
• Save yourselves and your families from the Fire (66:6).

Ruku 2 calls the believers to sincere repentance, commands the Prophet (ﷺ) to strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites, and gives the examples of four women.

• Repent with sincere repentance (66:8).
• Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites (66:9).
• Faith, not relation, decides a person's end (66:10 to 12).

• At-Tahrim is the 66th surah, with 12 ayat and 2 rukus, in para 28. It is Madani.
• The name comes from «تُحَرِّمُ» in 66:1 (to make unlawful).
• Occasion: the honey incident at Hazrat Zainab bint Jahsh's (RA) house (Sahih Bukhari).
• The Prophet (ﷺ) is told not to make unlawful what Allah made lawful: 66:1. Dissolution of oaths: 66:2.
• The secret was disclosed by one wife to another (Hafsah to Aishah (RA)): 66:3.
• The two wives are addressed in 66:4: repent; Allah, Jibril, righteous believers and angels are the Prophet's (ﷺ) helpers.
• Protect yourselves and your families from a Fire whose fuel is people and stones: 66:6.
• The angels over the Fire are harsh and severe and do not disobey Allah: 66:6.
• Sincere repentance «تَوْبَةً نَّصُوحًا»: 66:8.
• Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites: 66:9.
• The wives of Nuh and Lut (AS) are the example of the disbelievers: 66:10.
• Pharaoh's wife (Asiyah) is the example of the believers: 66:11. Maryam (AS): 66:12.
• 80-list words: «لِمَ تُحَرِّمُ» (66:1) and «لَا يَعْصُونَ» (66:6).